Understand phone field

Understand phone field

The Phone field enables your users to enter a valid international phone number. The input area of the phone field contains:

A dropdown menu to select the international country calling code

An input box, with indicative text, to enter the phone number

Below is how a phone field looks on a form:

When a user accesses from a web browser:

When a user accesses from a phone or tablet:

Allowed characters

The phone field accepts formatted phone numbers. For example, the number +1 201-555-5555 may be entered as:

+1 (201) 555-5555

+1 201 555 5555

Default behaviour

When a user accesses a phone field, Zoho Creator detects the country from where that user is accessing the form (via their IP address) and expects a phone number from that country. For example, if a user access your form from the United States of America (USA), the international country calling code in the phone field is set with +1 and a ten digit number is expected.

However, a user may still select any other value available in the international country calling code dropdown, and thereby enter a phone number belonging to a different country.

Experience while entering data

When a user enters an input in the phone field, Zoho Creator validates if the number of digits entered is as per the phone number convention followed in the selected country. For example, a USA (+1), UK (+44) or India (+91) number is expected to contain ten digits. If a user enters less or more than ten digits, then the message Enter a valid phone number appears below that field.

Zoho Creator does not validate if the input entered in the phone field is an active/functioning phone number.

Features

Set default country code: If you set a Default country code, the phone field will expect a phone number from that country when your users access your form. However, this does not restrict them from entering a phone number from a different country. Setting a default country code can make it easier for your users as they wouldn't have to select the required country calling code before entering a phone number.

Set country code options: By setting Country code options, you can restrict your users to enter a phone number that's from one of the selected countries. The international country calling code dropdown will display the values of just the countries you allow.

By default in reports, to give a visual uniformity, the phone numbers stored in a phone field:

Appear highlighted

Appear unformatted, i.e., the special characters entered by users will not be displayed. For example: +1 201-555-5555 will be displayed as +12015555555.

You can customize the appearance of phone numbers as follows:

Set the Display Option: You can display the phone numbers as Formatted Number, i.e., display them with the special characters they were entered with

Enable Link to Dial: You can make the phone numbers appear clickable on a web browser and tappable on a phone/tablet such that when a user clicks/taps on a phone number, Zoho Creator will place a call to it through the default call dialing app of that device (web browser / phone / tablet)